Luke Perry and Lost alum Rebecca Mader are joining Tommy Chong in the indie comedy It’s Gawd!
The movie centers on Earth’s creator, who, desperate to save the world (and his job), travels to the planet to reconnect with mankind — via a nightly variety show. Chong will play Gawd.
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Perry will play Jeffrey Siegel, the network exec, described as an exploitive, dismissive and arrogant control freak.
Mader will portray Holly Abrahams, Gawd’s producer and Jeffrey’s love interest.
Writer-director-composer Gerald Brunskill wrote and will make his feature directorial debut with the movie, which is set to begin production next month in downtown Los Angeles. Brunskill says he came up with the idea while touring with Neale Donald Walsch, author of the book series Conversations With God.
“It’s a rebellious call to action that endeavors to inspire a troubled world through humor and music,” Brunskill says of the project, which will be produced by his Wow and Flutter Media Group, which he heads with partner and producer Ryan Rees.
It’s Gawd! marks Chong’s first full-length feature since 1984’s Cheech and Chong’s the Corsican Brothers and will be the first time that he appears in a starring role without his longtime partner, Cheech Marin.
“I guess you could say I had my spiritual awakening while I was in prison,” says Chong, who was sentenced to nine months in 2003 for selling bongs and marijuana pipes. “I liked (Jerry’s) take on God combined with the comedy. If you look at the world today as it is, you gotta think only a stoner could’ve put that together.”
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Rees will produce along with Adam O’Connor. Ruchir Garg will executive produce, and Jennifer Birn is casting and co-producing.
Perry, best known for his role as Dylan McKay on Beverly Hills, 90210, more recently has starred in Hallmark Channel’s Goodnight for Justice movies and appeared on ABC’s Body of Proof.
Mader recurred as the ill-fated Charlotte on ABC’s Lost and more recently appeared in Iron Man 3 and guest-starred on NBC’s 30 Rock and USA’s White Collar.
